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Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Liberalism should not be unquestioningly accepted. by Ryo.I

In the 21th century, you
can enjoy freedom. For example, you can go wherever you want to go if you have enough
money. Furthermore, you do not have to participate in politics and other people
do not have the right to force their ideas on you: This is the idea of liberalism. Liberalism is the
thought that the most important thing is liberty and everyone can use it except
to violate others’ liberty and the thought is now dominant in the world.
However, I think that if liberalism is too extreme, this is very dangerous for
your life for two reasons: First, liberalism that is too extreme could destroy
democracy. Second, liberalism could prevent people from deepening their ideas
about social problems.

First, liberalism that
is too extreme could corrupt democracy. This is because people have the freedom
not to participate in politics. For example, according to a survey (2012) by the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, only 37% of all Japanese aged
20 to 29 who especially said they prefer liberalism voted in the Lower House
elections in 2012. That is, more than half of the people did not think about
politics seriously and enjoy their freedom not to vote. However, the more
people who do not vote, the more dangerous Japan is. This
is because politicians can easily change the law and the system to convenience
things for them if people do not watch what politicians do. Thus, if the tendency
continues for a long time, the extreme freedom could destroy itself.

Second, liberalism
could prevent people from deepening their ideas. This is because it tends to
lead to relativism; people have the freedom to have any idea and have the right
not to be forced to any idea. However, under this idea, people could cling to
their own idea and not discuss thoroughly by saying, “It is your idea. My idea is
not the same. That’s OK. It is no use discussing any more.” I think this is not
a favorable situation to realize a better world. As Michael Sandel (2009, p305)
says, “arguments are impossible to avoid for realizing justice”, you should not
stay liberalism that is too extreme and especially relativism and should discuss
serious problems with each other thoroughly.

In conclusion, liberalism
should not be unquestioningly accepted for two reasons. First, people do not
have to participate in politics, which may destroy democracy. Second,
liberalism tends to lead to relativism so people could have less opportunity to
discuss, which prevent them to deepen their ideas. Thus, you should not enjoy
the freedom too much, and face the duty of citizens and discuss the problem
frankly because it is essential to protect the freedom.

450words

References

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
(2012). The transition of the vote rate